Improvement in sewing-machines



KATE C. BARTON. Sewing-Machine.

No. 131,324. Patented sep.17,1a72.

M7/.4 2 mi M5 UNITED STATES.

PATENT TTTG,

KATE C. BARTON, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 131,324, datedSeptember 147, 1872.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, KATE C. BARTON, of the city and county of`Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Sewing-Machines adapted to sewing sails, awnings,&c.; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawing and letters of reference marked thereon.

My invention consists in an arrangement of two or more needles and othernecessary sewing parts, with a device for folding or ini terlocking theedges of two pieces of fabric to be stitched in parallel lines, thewhole operating to produce seamsof great strength.

Figure l shows a plan of this machine; Fig. 2, a side elevation; Fig. 3,a front elevation. All of the above figures are on a scale one andone-half inch per foot. Fig. 4, the creasing device, drawn of full size.Fig. 5 shows afull-sized section ofthe seam produced.

The same letters of reference apply to the same parts in the severalfigures.

A is the bed or cloth-supporting table of the machine, on which isfastened B, a guide or creaser formed of two hooks, B1 and B2, madelarger at the front end, so as to facilitate the entrance of the piecesof cloth C and C1. The cloth, over which the creaser B passes, is bentinto folds G2 and C3, which, interlocking, resemble, in cross section,the joint known by platemetal workers as a locked joint or double seam.D and D are needles, which simultaneously make two rows of stitchesthrough the folded cloth as it passes out at the back of the creaser B.

The arrangement for stitching may be any of those now in use forproducing-either a chain-stitch, by means of a looper under the table,or shuttles containing bobbins such as are used in lock-stitchsewing-machines may be employed. The particular arrangement of this partof the mechanism not forming an essential component of this invention,any of the known forms of stitching apparatus will comply with therequirements of this part of my invention.

W is a windlass for straining or stretching the edges of the twopiecesof cloth G and O1 forming the seam attached to the ends thereof, theother ends being secured to a post, X, or other fixed object. l

The purpose of stretching the cloth in this operation is three fold:First, to relieve the operator and machine from the weight of the cloth5 second, to avoid puckering of either piece of cloth from throwingundue strain on the tighter piece when the sail is in use; and, third,to prevent the sewing of stitches tighter than the cloth, and theconsequent breaking thereof when the seam is subjected to longitudinalstrain in use.

The machine is supported on wheels O, resting on rails R, on which ithas a progressive movement in the intervals of time between the makingof the stitches, imparted to it by a feed motion, consisting, as I haveshown, of a ratchet-wheel, S, and pawl T, or by any of the feed-motionsin common use in sewingmachines.

A cord or tape, U', is attached to the windlass, and, passing over aroller, V, through the creaser from back to front, has each end securedby pinning or basting to one of the front corners of the seam to beunited. The rear corners are then secured to the postXby tapes Z, andthe windlass W tightened up so as to stretch both the pieces G and C1 ofthe clot-h evenly at the edges forming the seam.

The needles D and D and shuttles M and M are supplied with thread, andthe machine being putin motion passes the creaser B from the end towardthe windlass W toward the post X over the edges C and C' of the cloth,and folds them, as shown. in the section in Fig. 5, in which shape theyare lirmly stitched by the needles D and D', forming a substantial seam.

The form of this machine may be varied without changing its essentialcharacter, as, for instance, more needles can be used, and more than'twolines of stitching produced.

The cloth may be strained to a frame bearing the windlass, and the frameand cloth moved instead of the machine but I deem it preferable t0 movethe machine, especially in reinem the case of large sails. All of thesemodii- 2. The Windlass W7 roller V, eordU, and cations, I believe, areincluded. in my invenpost X, in combination with a traveling sewtion.ing-machine guided upon rails, and operating I do notcla-in1,separately,V any of the instruas described.

mentalities I have described; but KATE C. BARTON.

What I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure as such by LettersPatent, is- Witnesses:

l. The combination of the duplex or multiple arrangement of needles andstitching1 de- S. LLOYD WIEGAND,

vices traveling on Ways with the guides B1 and THOMAS H. NEILSON.`

B2, as and for the purpose set forth.

